HOWTO - Sashipa development

How to print mailing labels.

You wish to make a print report with mailing labels for a listForm.

In this page we explain an example of the DemoContact application. This report contains two list levels. We begin with a general skeleton:

  <printReport name='PRtblContactaddress_Mailing'>
    <pageFormat format='A4' orientation='portrait' />
    <pageImageableArea x='40' y='35' w='515' h='772' relativeLocation='no' />

    <caption>Mailing labels Addresses</caption>

    <pageContent>
      <mailingDistribution labelsInWidth='2' labelsInHeight='7'>
        <mailingLabelSize w='217' h='95' />
        <mailingLabelGap firstWidth='40' firstHeight='46' width='75' height='16' />

        ... dataRecordPrinter ...

      </mailingDistribution>
    </pageContent>

  </printReport>

At first we define how many labels are on a page width (here labelsInWidth='2') and on a page height (here labelsInHeight='7'). We know gaps to keep around the page (it depends of your printer). Then we can compute following attributes.

NB: here we prefer to compute locations in absolute mode (relativeLocation='no'). So the (0; 0) location is the top left corner of the page (and not of the drawing area).

An A4 format is 595 * 842. Here are arithmetic details:

          A4: page width = 595, page height = 842
          Label width : 1st gap = 40; w; 2nd gap = 40
          => middle gap = 40 + 40 = 80
          Label height : 1st gap = 11; h; 2nd gap = 0
          Page width : top gap page = 0 ; bottom gap page = 0
          Page height : left gap page = 35 ; right gap page = 35
          w: (595 - 40*2 - 40*2) / 2 = 435 / 2 = 217 (+1)
          h: (842 - 46 - 35 - 16*6) / 7 = 665 / 7 = 95 (+0)

Once these formalities are done, content of label can be defined. A dataRecordPrinter is used, for creating one label for each data row:

  <dataRecordPrinter>

    ... serieDrawFigure ...

    ... printerDataSource ...

  </dataRecordPrinter>

First we look at the serieDrawFigure. We want to print:

The name then the first name
The street
The postcode then the city

  <serieDrawFigure locations='relativeVertical' atomic='yes' checkMaxHeight='no'>
    <defaultFont name='arial' style='plain' size='10' />
    <defaultSubDrawFigureAttributes maxHeight='26' />

    <!-- ContactName, ContactFirstname -->
    <serieDrawFigure locations='relativeHorizontal' checkMaxWidth='no'>
      <defaultSubDrawFigureAttributes y='0' maxHeight='26' />
      <!-- ContactFirstname -->
      <textDrawFigure x='0' maxWidth='150'>
        <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContact_Contactfirstname' />
      </textDrawFigure>
      <!-- ContactName -->
      <textDrawFigure x='4' maxWidth='150'>
        <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContact_Contactname' />
      </textDrawFigure>
    </serieDrawFigure>

    <!-- street -->
    <textDrawFigure maxHeight='50'>
      <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContactaddress_AddressStreet' />
    </textDrawFigure>

    <!-- Postcode, city -->
    <serieDrawFigure locations='relativeHorizontal' checkMaxWidth='no'>
      <defaultSubDrawFigureAttributes y='0' maxHeight='26' />
      <!-- Postcode -->
      <textDrawFigure x='0' maxWidth='38'>
        <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContactaddress_Addresspostcode' />
      </textDrawFigure>
      <!-- city -->
      <textDrawFigure x='4' maxWidth='200'>
        <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContactaddress_Addresscity' />
      </textDrawFigure>
    </serieDrawFigure>
  </serieDrawFigure>

Several remarks:

In most of case the checking of size coherence is disabled (checkMaxHeight='no', checkMaxWidth='no'). But we take the risk that a figure leaves its area...
The main serieDrawFigure has a relativeVertical mode. So each sub-drawFigure location is dependent to the previous drawFigure. That means that if a street is empty then the postcode and the city will take place just under name and first names, without a blank line.
The sub-serieDrawFigure for the name and first name, has a relativeHorizontal mode. So the first name follows the name (it's location depend of the name width). Idem for the postcode and the city.

Now we just have to look at the data source:

  <printerDataSource>
    <selectQuery db='dbDemoContact'>
      <selectStatement>
        <instancePk>
          <instanceTable schemaTable='tblContactaddress' />
        </instancePk>
        <instanceColumnList>
          <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContact_Contactfirstname' />
          <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContact_Contactname' />
          <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContactaddress_AddressStreet' />
          <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContactaddress_Addresspostcode' />
          <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContactaddress_Addresscity' />
        </instanceColumnList>
      </selectStatement>
      <fromStatement>
        <mainInstanceTable schemaTable='tblContactaddress' />
        <fkJoin join='inner'>
          <instanceFk schemaFk='fk_tblContactaddress_tblContact' />
        </fkJoin>
      </fromStatement>
    </selectQuery>
  </printerDataSource>

It's a static query (and not a dynamic selectQueryBuilder). It will be in the default mode: mode='merge'. Select and From statement are redefined. So the end query will take Where and OrderBy statement from the listForm query.

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